[NLA] Can research improve policy or practice?"

[Regie D Stites]

Thanks to Tom Sticht for the thorough and convincing reply.  His stellar
career has been an inspiration to us all and it seems to me that it
provides a strong testimonial to the fact that research can indeed
improve policy and practice.  As Tom and others continue to debate the
value of investments in research, I hope that they keep Tom's work in
mind as an example of the potential that research has to make a
contribution.  There is room for a little optimism I think.

Regie Stites    

Thomas Sticht wrote:
> 
> In a recent post Regie Stite made a couple of comments and asked for
> some information from me that I will respond to  here.
> 
> First, Regie’s comments  suggested that I had complained that $5 million
> per year in the last 10 years giving about $50 million  in R & D for
> adult literacy education was too much. But I did not make that
> assertion.  I did not assert that too much was spent on R & D, just that
> I could not see that the field had benefited much from the $5 million
> per year average that Regie referred to. In trivializing the $5 million
> per year he suggested that the money would have just bought some pencils
> and notebooks for a few students.  But indeed $5 million in FY 1999
> would have covered the entire federal allocation of state grant funds
> to Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota, the Virgin Islands, American
> Samoa, and Guam. In this context,  one wonders whether the benefits of
> the $5 million in R & D outweighed its costs in lost services it might
> have provided.
> 
> Near the end of his posting, Regie asked for two responses from me. One,
> what do I consider "convincing evidence" of the efficacy of some R & D,
> and two, would I provide examples of my own R & D that has had some
> impact on policy and/or practice.
> 
> First, about convincing evidence. At the outset, I always try to find
> out how the research has identified and presented the nature of the
> problem(s) to be attacked and solved or at least reduced to some extent.
> Then I look to see if the solution(s) that are presented to solve/reduce
> the problems seem appropriate. For instance, has the solution been
> developed for this particular problem, or has a solution off the shelf
> from some other line of research (e.g., multiple intelligences) been
> imported to see if it can deal with the problem. Then I look at the way
> the solutions are implemented and how the data are collected, analyzed,
> interpreted and reported to support any claims that policy makers,
> teachers or other researchers should pay much attention to the research
> and its findings. In making these judgments, I draw on a large body of
> knowledge about behavioral & cognitive science, measurement, assessment
> and evaluation, curriculum design and development, practical issues in
> working in large organizations, and other types of knowledge about the
> adult education field.
> 
> For instance, if the report claims that the research will help teachers
> teach better, I look for the evidence that supports such claims. I look
> to see if there was some evidence that before the research some students
> were  having trouble learning something, and then after the research
> they or similar students were able to learn the material better. It
> helps to make the findings more convincing to me if there has been
> replications of the study in different contexts using different teachers
> and students, and if some third, independent  party can also produce or
> evaluate evidence that the new approach based on the R & D appears to be
> more effective.
> 
> I look for different kinds of evidence depending upon what the problem
> is that is being defined. As far as influencing policy and practice on a
> large scale is concerned, I try to find evidence that other analysts,
> too, have studied the work and been convinced that the R & D is well
> done and produces the types of outcomes it says it does. Then I always
> ask "Does this make sense to me?" in terms of my own background of
> knowledge and experience.
> 
> Regarding my own work.  False modesty keeps me from giving my own
> opinions. So I have let others express the usefulness of my work to
> policy and practice in a chronology from 1989 to 2000 as they have seen
> it with regard to the value of "workplace literacy" and "contextualized
> learning" as indicated by the following quotes:
> 
> In 1989 a Department of Labor policy maker reported that, "As Thomas
> Sticht...and others have shown, literacy skills can be learned far more
> rapidly when they are taught as part of the processes of teaching job
> skills....A side benefit of functional context instruction is that there
> is no stigma attached to learning job skills as there can be in learning
> "literacy" skills. Thus the dignity of the adult learner is
> safeguarded." ---Ray Uhalde, Deputy Administrator, Office of Strategic
> Planning and Policy Development, (later Assistant Secretary for
> Employment and Training Administration), U.S. Department of Labor,
> Washington, D.C. In: Literacy and the Marketplace.  New York: The
> Rockefeller Foundation, June 1989,pp. 37-38.
> 
> In 1990 researchers for the SCANS commission, of which I was a member,
> reported research leading the SCANS Commission to recommend that
> teaching and learning should follow a "contextualized" approach. The
> researchers said, "Individuals learn best when they are taught in a
> context of application--in a functional context....Cognitive science
> strongly implies that people learn knowledge and skills best when they
> are taught in the context of real situations, real activities, and real
> problems (Sticht, 1984, 1986, 1987; Resnick, 1987b; Lave, 1988)."
> ---Michael Kane, Sue Berryman, David Goslin, & Ann Meltzer (September
> 17, 1990). How to Identify and Describe Necessary Skills Required by
> Work. Report prepared for the Secretary's Commission on Achieving
> Necessary Skills, U. S. Department of Labor. Washington, D.C.: Pelavin
> Associates, pp. 1,7.
> 
> In 1991, Kutner et al surveyed  work of the National Workplace Literacy
> Program and said, "The workplace literacy movement evolved directly from
> Thomas Sticht's analysis of literacy demands in the military which found
> that using job-specific materials improved job performance more than
> using general academic materials....In a functional  context-oriented
> program, instructional materials are drawn from actual work materials."
> ---Mark Kutner, Renee Sherman & Lenore Webb (1991, May). A Review of the
> National Workplace Literacy Program. Report prepared for the U.S.
> Department of Education, Washington, DC: Pelavin Associates, pp. 14,22.
> 
> In 1997, after identifying the two most influential studies in adult
> literacy education in the last 30 years, the other being Paulo Freire’s
> work and its influence on adult literacy education, Shanahan & Neuman
> (the present Asst. Sec. For Elem. & Sec. Ed.) said "Another influential
> study in adult literacy is Tom Sticht's work on literacy in work
> training and job performance....He based his approach on a
> functional-context principle--that new knowledge must build on old
> knowledge, and that literacy instruction could be made more meaningful
> by using real life situations, tasks, and materials....This approach has
> been extended conceptually into other functional approaches such as
> family literacy and health literacy." --Timothy Shanahan & Susan Neuman
> (1997). Literacy research that makes a difference. Reading Research
> Quarterly, 32, 202-210.
> 
> In 2000, writing about the framework for the Equipped for the Future
> project, Merrifield said, "When Sticht initially proposed the
> "functional context" approach to adult education, however, his intention
> was to focus on use, not just situation. As EFF developed role maps in
> an attempt to identify what adults need to know and be able to do in
> their important adult roles, it became clear that application or use,
> not possession of skills, was what mattered. Context came to be seen as
> the reasons people have for learning, the use they want to make of it.
> In this way, a context-based approach became linked with a purposeful
> approach to learning." Juliet Merrifield (2000, March). Equipped for the
> Future Research Report: Building the Framework, 1993-1997. Washington,
> DC: National Institute for Literacy, p. 11.
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